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Wednesday, January 25, 2017

I have been all about scones lately. I suspect it has to do with those feelings we get in the middle of winter - the desire to shut ourselves off from the (grey and dismal) outside world and snuggle in with a cuppa and a warm baked good. Hibernation is oh so tempting in January! But as we are also meant to be thinking of good health in the new year, I thought I'd create a comforting vegan scone recipe with added nutritional benefits, using fruit that's easy to find in winter.

Saturday, January 21, 2017

There's a funny thing that happens when you make a significant change in your home - everything around that change looks like it could use a change too. At least that's what we have found since completing our dramatic foyer makeover this past month. We are honestly so happy with the results and pretty proud that we did the renovation work ourselves.

We love our home and we're grateful that we have a comfortable house and plenty of nutritious food to eat. We could leave our house just the way it is and it would be absolutely fine. But my husband and I actually enjoyed the process of fixing up and decorating our foyer (although it wasn't easy by any means) and we plan to make being Mr. and Ms. Fix-It a bit of a hobby this year. And, as I mentioned in our foyer "before" post, our kids are now 12 and 14 and we think it's time for a more sophisticated decor. Still a comfy family space, but a little less "worn in" is what we're going for.

Wednesday, January 18, 2017

I'm long overdue for a What I Ate Wednesday post! I have eaten plenty of satisfying meals lately, but I haven't often been inclined to photograph them. Must be those January doldrums. Is anybody else feeling blah? I neglected to take Vitamin D throughout the winter and that's a mistake in a climate like this where sunshine is rare. (Read this primer on Vitamin D for more.) I have been trying to make up for it by taking Vitamin D regularly this week, as well as using my happy lamp for 10 to 20 minutes a day.

In any case, I thought I'd share a few of the meals that I have actually gotten my butt in gear to photograph recently. Starting with this breakfast of champions, above. Raisin scones. Sometimes when you don't feel much like eating first thing in the morning, you just have to treat yourself. You can find the recipe for these vegan Scottish Scones here.

Friday, January 13, 2017

At the start of each new year, a lot of us think about making some small (or big?) changes in our lives, maybe starting up a new hobby or taking steps towards discovering our inner selves a little bit more. I believe that we keep finding out more about ourselves - our preferences, our passions and our paths in life - no matter how old we are. I also believe that books are a powerful tool to assist us in finding our passions. That's why I started off the new year by perusing some interesting titles from DK Books.

Tuesday, January 10, 2017

The worst part of sending kids back to school after vacation is packing daily school lunches again. Preparing lunches the night before seems like a wise plan, but by the time dinner is made, dishes are washed and kids are wrangled into the bath, who among us feels like packing up lunches? Once morning comes, packing lunches is a mad rush and sometimes nutrition falls by the wayside in favour of convenient, portable and packaged snacks.

During the last couple of days of Christmas vacation, my daughter talked some more about embracing a vegan lifestyle. She has been vegetarian her whole life, but struggles with giving up foods like pizza, conventional chocolate bars and macaroni and cheese. (Her brother and her dad eat cheese, while I do not.) I'm not one to push her into a fully vegan diet, but most of our meals and snacks are vegan anyway and she would prefer a completely animal-friendly diet. So we sat down to plan for vegan lunches and snacks. I thought what came out of our brainstorming might be helpful to some of you. Even if you have no plans to become vegan, these ideas will work for healthy, everyday meals and snacks on the run, for school or work.

Wednesday, January 4, 2017

Happy New Year friends! I'm easing into 2017 slowly. The whole family is still at home this week and we have been hanging out in our pajamas, eating lots of yummy things, playing Yahtzee and charades and spinning vinyl records. We're not entirely lazy though - we have also been packing up Christmas stuff, donating old snowsuits and other excess stuff and planning a small renovation of our powder room. I'm grateful for all the social opportunities that the holidays brought to us, as well as the gifts I received, especially the diy fireplace mantelmy husband made.

Seeing as it's Veganuary, when people experiment with becoming vegan (even if just for the month), I thought it would be a good time to look back at the vegan recipes that were most popular on the blog last year. Hopefully they will provide some inspiration for those of you who want to add more vegan recipes to your meal repertoires. It's my goal to make vegan cooking easy, relatively quick and accessible (ie. so that meat eaters enjoy it too). Here are the top 10 most popular vegan recipes on the blog in 2016, starting with number 10. (Take this order with a grain of salt because some posts included giveaways and that always boosts the numbers!)

Hi! I'm Joann, a Toronto, Canada freelance writer and mother of two kids and two beagle-mix rescue pups. Inspiration is all around us, but how often do we miss it as we speed through our days crossing things off our lists? Grab a cup of tea and join me in exploring the art in everyday life, including diy, decor, books and lots of easy-to-make, family-friendly vegan food.